Legendary Kuwaiti shooter Fehaid al-Deehani has refused to carry the Olympic neutral team flag at the Rio Games opening ceremony, where the Gulf state’s athletes cannot march behind their own emblem.
Kuwait is suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other leading federations such as FIFA, football’s world body, over government interference in sport.
Despite last-minute calls for dialogue to get the Kuwait government to make a concession, al-Deehani, winner of Kuwait’s only Olympic medals, and seven other athletes are resigned to having to compete in Rio as so-called Independent Olympic Athletes.
According to Kuwaiti media, the IOC asked al-Deehani, who took trap shooting bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney and 2012 London Games, to carry the Olympic neutral team flag.
But the Kuwait army officer turned down the request.
“I am a military man and I will only carry the Kuwait flag,” he said. “I cannot carry the IOC flag.” The IOC and FIFA have now suspended Kuwait three times since 2007 over government interference.
The latest dispute has caused anguish across the Gulf state, pitting the government even against global sporting powerbroker Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a member of the IOC and FIFA, who is from Kuwait.
